The Tartu Conference provides a venue for presenting and discussing results of academic research focusing on politics and societies of Russia and Eastern Europe. Participants of the 2016 conference are encouraged to share their reflections on the multiple crises that challenge the very idea of Europe as a value-based political and security community: the events in and around Ukraine, political transformation in Russia and the country’s newly assertive foreign policy, the Greek debt crisis and the emerging North-South division, the ascent of populist, nationalist and xenophobic political forces, the refugee crisis and the recent events in Syria and the Greater Middle East. All of these developments have implications for the region and globally, making the erstwhile dream of a Common European Home appear ever more remote.
The Tartu Conference is organized jointly by the Centre for EU-Russia Studies at the University of Tartu, the Global Europe Centre at the University of Kent, and the Uppsala Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Uppsala University. The conference will be supported by the European Commission under a Horizon 2020 Twinning project entitled “Building Research Excellence in Russian and East European Studies at the Universities of Tartu, Uppsala and Kent” (UPTAKE).
Call for panel and paper proposals
Scholars working in all subfields of area studies, including comparative politics, international relations, economics, history, sociology, anthropology, cultural studies and related disciplines, are invited to submit proposals for panels, roundtables and papers for the First Tartu Conference on Russian and East European Studies.
The Tartu Conference will provide a venue for academic discussion of the fundamental social and political trends affecting all aspects of people’s lives in Russia and Eastern Europe. The organizers hope to institute the Tartu Conference as a major annual event in Russian and East European Studies, bringing together scholars across multiple disciplines, from the region and beyond. Participants of the 2016 conference are encouraged to share their reflections on the multiple crises that challenge the very idea of Europe as a value-based political and security community: the events in and around Ukraine, political transformation in Russia and the country’s newly assertive foreign policy, the Greek debt crisis and the emerging North-South division, the ascent of populist, nationalist and xenophobic political forces, the refugee crisis and the recent events in Syria and the Greater Middle East. All of these developments have implications for the region and globally, making the erstwhile dream of a Common European Home appear ever more remote. With these tensions in mind, conference participants will explore the changing representations of the European legacy in politics, economics, arts, popular culture and public discourse.
The conference will begin with the evening session on Sunday, 12 June, and end in late afternoon on Tuesday, 14 June. The programme will include academic panels, roundtables focused on current issues and plenary sessions featuring, among others, the following speakers:
Archie Brown, University of Oxford
Philip Hanson, Chatham House
Judith Pallot, University of Oxford
Zsuzsa Csergö, Association for the Study of Nationalities
Hans-Henning Schröder, German Institute for International and Security Affairs
The organizers welcome individual paper submissions as well as proposals for full panels and roundtables. Each paper proposal must include the author(s) name and affiliation and an abstract of no more than 250 words. Panel and roundtable proposals should list the names and affiliations of all speakers (as a general rule, 4 per panel/roundtable), along with abstracts and, if available, information about the chair and the discussant (alternatively, these can be assigned by the Programme Committee). Please use this link to submit your proposal by 20 February 2016.
All proposals will undergo rigorous selection by the Programme Committee. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by email by 20 March. The deadline for registration is 20 April. There is no registration fee. All presenters will be required to submit full papers by 23 May 2016
Participants are expected to make their own travel arrangements, but the organizers will issue visa invitations, if applicable. At any stage throughout the process, you are welcome to contact the organizers at info@tartuconference.ut.ee.
Programme Committee
Viacheslav Morozov, University of Tartu
Stefan Hedlund, University of Uppsala
Elena Korosteleva, University of Kent
Important dates
3 November 2015 Call for Papers opens
20 February 2016 Deadline for proposal submission
20 March 2016 Notification of acceptance
20 April 2016 Registration deadline for panel/roundtable participants
15 May 2016 Registration deadline for guests
23 May 2016 Deadline for full paper submission
12-14 June 2016 The First Annual Tartu Conference on Russian and East European Studies
Registration
The registration will open here on 20 March 2016 and close on 20 April 2016 for panel/roundtable participants and 15 May 2016 for guests.
No registration fee will be charged. Registration to the conference signifies commitment to attend.
Participation rules and guidelines
Panels entail presentation of prepared papers (distributed in advance to a discussant and co-panelists) on a related topic or theme, followed by structured discussion of those papers. A full panel must have one chair, 3-4 paper-givers; and one discussant.
Roundtables entail structured discussion of a topic/theme, without the presentation of papers. Participants of a roundtable will talk with each other and with the audience about a common topic on which they have diverse experience or perspectives. Discussion and question-and-answer between speakers, and especially between speakers and audience, are key features. Proposals for roundtables should be submitted only when the topic clearly justifies this format. Roundtables must have a chair and 4-5 speakers.
A panel/roundtable should not be made up of participants from only one institution. The presenters on a panel/roundtable must be from at least two different institutions.
Student Participation: Graduate student participants should be at the research-stage in their programmes. All panels must include at least one member who holds a doctoral degree. Graduate students should not, as a rule, be designated as discussants on a panel.
Registration and commitment to attend
Registration to the conference signifies commitment to attend. Should illness or other emergency render you unable to attend, please notify both the organizers (info@tartuconference.ut.ee) and your session chair. Scholars who fail to appear at their session without giving notice will not be included as participants in future events of the consortium.
Panel Participant Guidelines
- a chair, allotted a total of five minutes for panel and presenter introductions;
- 3-4 panelists, allotted 15-20 minutes each;
- a discussant, allotted 10 minutes;
- followed by 30 minutes for questions and group discussion.
Advance copy of your paper for chair, discussant and co-panelists. Paper-givers will be required to upload their full papers to the conference website by Monday, 23 May. They will be made available to other members of the panel, including the chair and discussant. Note that the conference charges no registration fee, but requires firm commitment and engagement on the part of the participants. Failure to submit full text by the deadline will result in the paper being removed from both the printed and the electronic versions of the programme.
During the panel sessions, presenters ought to be pro-active and play a role in discussing the other papers in the panel, in addition to presenting their own paper. For panels put together by the organisers, the panelists will be put in touch with the panel chair and each other.
Role of the discussant: The discussant's role is to provide another perspective on the papers presented in the panel. They should have read all the papers - which are shared by the panelists well in advance - before the conference and be able to make some observations on each. They should help to facilitate a dialogue with the audience and stimulate discussion. Should they wish to, discussants can provide more detailed feedback in writing to presenters after the panel.
Roundtable Participant Guidelines
Roundtable organizers and chairs: Make sure that the roundtable addresses an important question. Set clear goals for the session that are achievable within the given time frame (1 hour and 45 minutes). Communicate the goals and format of the roundtable to the speakers very clearly. Be mindful of the time constraints and the fair allocation of time to all as you plan and conduct your session. Begin the session by introducing the topic and the speakers and informing the audience about the format. Keep in mind that discussion and interaction between speakers, and especially between speakers and audience, are key features of roundtables. Involve the audience by taking questions and comments.
Contact
Should you have any questions regarding academic or organizational issues, please contact the organizers at info@tartuconference.ut.ee.
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